The Twin
by msjessilynn
Summary: When the Halliwells discover a lost "niece" shes in the middle of an inter-dimensional crisis. Can the Halliwells save her?


The young girl looked at the Victorian manor, swept up in emotions. Could this be it?   
A man exited the house. He was a babe. As he walked down the steps, she approached him.   
"Uhm...Mr. Halliwell?" the girl asked.   
He laughed and cleared his throat. "Im Leo. And you are?"   
"My names Pacey. Pacey Halliwell."   
He looked at her in a confusion. "Pacey Halliwell? Wh..Wh..what can I do for you?"   
"Im looking for my...." the girl looked down in embarassment. "Im looking for my birth family. I have been searching for two years for answers. I was told I could find them here."   
"Why dont we go inside? Then maybe we can....sort this thing out." Leo said, putting his arm around the raven haired girl.   
Slowly, she fell in step next to Leo. She was a thin girl, small build, with big green eyes. She reminded Leo of someone, But who?   
They entered the house. "Piper? Could you come in here for a moment?" Leo said loudly. "We have a visitor."   
Piper entered the foyer of the manor. "Wh....oh...who are you, honey?"   
Pacey began, but Leo cut her off hurriedly. "Her name is Pacey. Pacey HALLIWELL."   
Piper took a step back, as if in shock. As she looked at Leo, he seemed to read her mind. "I think I will go UPSTAIRS....and see what I can find out."   
Piper nodded approvingly. "Good idea. Meanwhile, Pacey and I will just...talk."   
Leo went upstairs, and the glimmer at the top proved he indeed left the manor to check out their new arrival.   
"Pacey," Piper began, "would you like a drink? Something tell me its going to be a LONG day."   
Pacey nodded and followed Piper into the kitchen. As Piper got the girl a glass of tea, Pacey began to tell her about what she was looking for.   
"Im looking for my birth family. I was adopted. Three years ago, my parents told me. They thought I should know the truth. The longer I thought about it, the more the idea of finding my real family seemed to...call to me. Ive been searching a little over two years. A man at the library claimed to know a Halliwell family. He said maybe you could help me. Maybe even distant family." The girl shrugged. "I figured why not? What have I got to lose?"   
Piper cleared her throat, trying to be as calm as possible. "What do you know about the family, other than their name, honey? Lets start there."   
"Well, Not a whole lot. I know I was born in a clinic outside of town, and placed for adoption immediatly. She was very young, they said. She looked alot like me, the nurse at the clinic said. When I asked bout my father they said that the girl was alone. When I asked bout any records, they claimed to not have any. But I snooped around and found this address on file. I also found the Doctors notes. They CLAIMED the girl moved her hand and slung an intern across the room, along with a table, and a lamp." Pacey rolled her eyes. "They also said the baby, me, was four months early...it was a miracle I even survived."   
Piper was in a daze. Her head was spinning with thoughts.....she thought of who it obviously sounded like, but had Prue ever dissappeared for long enough to have a baby, when she was childlike herself? But wasnt her powers binded? How? She shook her head to clear the traffic and looked at the petite girl.   
"Well, Pacey," she said slowly. "Im not SURE we can help. But Im going to try." With that she walked very deliberately into the study.   
  
-  
With a phone call to Paige, she started dialing Pheobe.   
"We have a problem..I think," Piper said as soon as Pheobe picked up the phone. "I need you home, ASAP."   
"Whats up?" Pheobe said, in a rush. "Im a little busy here."   
"We have a new arrival at the manor. Little more than a child....with a rather AMAZING story."   
"Innocent?"   
"Among other things. Try a....relative. Of the impossible persuasion."   
Confused Pheobe started gathering up paperwork. "Im...on my way....I guess."   
Hanging up, she heard a scream. Running into the kitchen, she found Pacey in a crumpled heap on the floor.   
"Sweetie? Whats wrong?"   
"I feel like Im being split in two....make it...stop hurting, "she said breathlessly.   
Piper froze her. temporary, but effective, piper thought aloud.   
"Leo? We need some HELP. NOW!"   
In a blur of a thousand lights, Leo arrived.   
"Whats up?" Seeing Pacey on the floor, He bent over. "You froze her?"   
"She was in EXTREME pain Leo. She claimed she felt she was split in two. What was I supposed to do? See if it happened? What did you find out?"   
"Shes a Halliwell. But shes not."   
"Care to explain that?"   
"Well, it seems that someone ripped a hole in the dimensional rift betwwen here...and our...parallel dimension. Who? They dont know yet. But they are working on the specifics."   
Piper was extremely bewildered. "So, shes whos kid in our alter lives?"   
Leo sighed. In one word he sent Piper reeling. "Prue."   
  
  
---  
"PRUE?!?!" Piper exclaimed. "How in the...?"   
"Well, we all have a twin. Sometimes they can "drift" into our world. And sometimes they are pulled. And even sometimes...they get here without even knowing it. That appears to be what happened here. Pacey unknowingly stepped into THIS world, While looking for the same Halliwell family."   
"So what do we do? We cant simply shove her back in the hole. Especially since we dont know where it is. Can we scribe for a dimensional tear?"   
Leo looked dumbfounded. "I dont know. But we cant leave her ...."   
Piper interupted. "Leo, if shes a twin...that means Prue HAD a child in this world. Doesnt it?"   
Paige entered the room just as Piper made her relevation. "Prue had a kid? Howd she do that and no one know about it?"   
"I...I...I think I need to sit down," Piper said. "But I dont have time. We need to go to the attic. Shes going to unfreeze soon, and I cant just keep freezing her."   
Heading up to the attic, Pheobe came into the foyer. "Whats going on?"   
"Our guest is in the kitchen. Leo, could you fill her in? Paige and I need to check the Book of Shadows."   
  
---  
Entering the attic, Piper was getting more dissatisfied with the explaination the elders provided them about the girl downstairs. "If Prue had a kid, Who was the father? And why didnt Prue tell us about him? Or her? Or when? "OOOHHHH!" Piper vented. "I cant make any sense of this. For Prue to have "Had" THAT child, or even the twin of that child, Prue wouldve been....Like 16? 15? I cant remember Prue running away, or being sent away, except to camp that one summer. Could that have been when? Pacey was premature...I guess its POSSIBLE, but.....I...I just dont know."   
"Well," Paige stated, "just be glad Prue wasnt as perfect as you thought, and start digging. Shes still an innocent, Piper."   
Flipping thru the book, Paige saw something that maybe could help them.   
"Keeper of time,   
Tried and true,   
Hear my ryhme,   
I plead with you,   
Answer my call,   
Come to my side,   
before I fall,   
Into this divide."   
  
A gust of wind swept thru the attic and an elderly man appeared in the center of the room. "Who hath summoned me?"   
"We did." Piper said rather matter-of factly. "We need some help. Or at least some answers. Do you think that you could help us?   
"Doth thou thinketh me a genie from the lamp? My services come at a GREAT price, dear child. My name is Seth, keeper of time, space, and dimensions."   
--  
  
"Seth? Master of all that and they call you Seth? Isnt that cute?" Paige said sarcastically.  
"PAIGE! We need his help!"  
"Im sorry S...Seth." Paige couldnt help but grin when she said that.  
"Seth. We have a bit of a dilema. We have a young girl here that claims to be a part of our family. And indeed she is, but from the..other dimension. Is there anyway we can fix this?" Piper looked at Seth hopefully.  
"A GIRL? Here? From another dimension? Why should I believe you? No one has crossed without my knowledge in the last....5 years."  
"We were told there was a tear in the rift. Someone must have done it...accidentally." Paige said, trying to be serious.   
Seth looked as though hed been shot. "No one does this accidentally, dear. I will investigate your allegations. I shall return shortly."  
"Wait!" both girls yelled at once.  
Shooting the girls a look of annoyance, Seth stopped, running his hands over his evergreen colored overcoat. "Yes?'  
"What about the girl? She claims she feels shes being ripped apart. What can we do to help her?" Piper asked earnestly.  
Seths Eyes got huge with fear as he asked, "Ripped apart?"  
"Yeah, " Paige said. "Know anything about how to fix it?"  
"Yes," Seth said glumly, "Pray? Actually, I suppose I should go see the girl. Being ripped apart is a sign of chaos. It means only one of two things.  
"Such as? We dont have alot of time here." Piper said, trying to hurry up the dramamtics.  
  
---  
Seth turned and went down the stairs, with the girls on his heels.  
"Care to elaborate on the bombshell you just dropped?" Asked Piper loudly.  
"Who is, uhm, that?" Pheobe pointed at the unkept man standing on the stoop.  
"Paige conjured him to help Pacey. His name is Seth, the keeper of...well....time just to sum it up."  
"Oh ok. Well, Piper, you need to freeze her again. Shes sobbing and well, I think shes dying. Leo cant help her. I sent him to check with the Elders bout how to help her..even temporarily." Pheobe said matter-of-factly, even though you could tell she was terribly upset by this fact.  
Seth went on into the kitchen hurredly. Pacey was indeed sobbing hysterically and hugging herself, as if that would some how alleviate the terrible pain.  
"You..um..ou..here to...help....ah..me?" the girl said thru the tears.  
"We must return her immediatly. Or find her twin and send her." Seth said dramatically.  
"Well, you see theres a problem with that last part." Piper said coolly. "Weve..never met the twin, persay."  
"Never? I thought you said she was family?"  
"Well, she is, we found that out from HIGHER sources. But we never knew our sister, who, unfortunatly is no longer with us, had given birth to a child."  
Just at that moment, Leo orbed in. "She didnt," he added breathlessly. " She never even knew she was pregnant. It turns out that a demon posessed her, the other her anyway, and mated with another demon. She left her body as soon as they consumated the child. But when Prue went home that summer, she fell off a ledge down by the bay. SHE hemoraged pretty bad. But the alter Prue went into labor, and Pacey, was born premature."  
"So, my husband, how do we FIX this?"  
  
---  
  
"Well, " Leo began, "First, we need to find out why shes being pulled back. Thats why shes in pain. Someone is summoning her."  
"Maybe her demon-parents?" Pheobe asked, looking at Seth.  
Seth ran his thin hands through his long, white hair. "Most likely. But we cant let them have her. Since she has crossed over, she must stay. Demon child or not. Once they go back, the world that they knew there alters to reaccept that person. Often times it clings to that enity even tighter, reluctant to let them go again."  
"So, how are we going to stop her pain, or will she just have to deal with that as well?" Piper asked coldly. Piper was extremely upset. She was their niece, after all!  
"In order to stop her pain, we must repair the tear in the dimensions. Once fixed, she will become a solid part of THIS dimension. Forever."  
"Wont that alter our history?" Paige asked.  
"Not yours. Just Paceys. She will be an orphan now, and will think she always has been one. Since the twin died in this reality, before it was born...she cant take her place, naturally. Therefore, she will have to be turned over to authorities, and they will build her a new life.  
"But shes OUR niece. We just cant give her up!" Piper said, her anger rising. It took great control not to blow up the man they call Seth into tiny, TINY pieces. "How do we repair the hole?"  
"Since you are witches, I would think a nice spell will suffice."  
"But what if we WERENT witches."  
Seth looked at them all in turn and said softly, "Be glad that you are."  
  
----  
  
Together, the Charmed ones, along with Seth, went back to the attic to search for a spell to find the dimensional tear.  
Once they reached the room, Pheobe went to the couch and began writing a spell to fix the hole once they found it.  
"Lets see. Earthquakes, flood..., " Paige flipped through the book diligently, "enchantment? Interesting."  
"We need some help to remain sane,  
needing direction, needing sight,  
for our innocents newfound plight,  
keep her safe, and without pain,  
till we can fight evils gain."  
  
Piper lifted an eyebrow at Paige, "What was that?"  
"I thought maybe Pacey would get some relief. Maybe?" She said with a shrug of her shoulders.  
"Keep looking, Paige."  
"Ok, ok. Just trying to help." Paige sighed and returned to the book, she flipped over a few more pages. "I think I found something."  
"All dimensions, here my plea,  
Help me to find, what I need to see,  
To help another,  
To help ourselves,  
Find the merging point that be"  
  
In a flash of violet-blue, the girls could see an alley. At the end of that alley, was a hole about one foot in diameter. Through the hole, the girls saw an extension of the alley, like a mirrored reflection. Inside that reflection, was a man and woman standing there, calling for Pacey.  
"Why dont they just come and get her?"Paige asked.   
"They dont want to be in this world, they must feel the need to stay in that world." Seth said sternly. "Lets go."  
  
------  
  
They went downstairs. "How is Pacey?" Piper asked.  
"Sleeping. Whatever you did, helped her alot."  
Paige stuck her tongue out at Piper, and they headed out to the Cherokee. Piper stomped on the accelerator. Soon enough, they found the alley. They proceeded slowly, after they had told Seth to stay in the car. As they approached the opening, the man called out.  
"Wheres our daughter? Give her back to us, or else."  
"Or else what?" Piper said sarcastically. Then, whispering to Pheoble, she said calmly, "the spell Pheobe?"  
"Right!" Pulling out a piece of paper from her pants pocket, the girls began.  
  
"Realm of sameness, we do see,  
but for our lives, we leave it be,  
close forever, hole unknown,  
and stay shut so ones ....."  
  
Suddenly, a tentacle reached out and grabbed Pheobe. the girl screamed as she hit the ground. Paige ran over to her, and just as she was about to grab her, a fireball came towards her. A swirl of blueish light surrounded Paige just as the fireball hit the ground where she had been.  
"Damnit!" Piper said as she froze Pheobe and the tentacle. "Bye-bye!" With a snap of her wrists, the demoness swirled into a million particles. Paige grabbed Pheobe and orbed three feet away. Piper again in motion, the tenacle imploded into pieces, going back into the entrance, returning to the demon to reconstitute.   
The Charmed ones were once again on their feet, spell in hand. "Lets finish this!" Pheobe said.  
  
"Realm of sameness, we do see,  
but for our lives, we leave it be,  
close forever, hole unknown,  
and stay shut so ones cant roam."  
  
The tear began to shrink, with the demons moving towards the hole. The girl prepared to do battle, just in case, as the portal closed. Piper turned and hugged the other two girls. "Good spell, Pheobe."  
  
-----  
  
Later, Piper and Pheobe were sitting in a booth at P3, when Paige arrived with Pacey. The girl looked alot better as she sat down next to Piper.   
"How are you, honey?" Piper asked the girl, taking a drink.  
"Physically, Im a zillion percent better. But I still havent learned that much about my family."  
"Well, lets analize everything we learned today." Piper pulled a snapshot out of her purse and handed it to Pacey. "This was your mother Prue. She was a very talented woman. Shes in heaven now. We are her sis.....friends, which means,we are going to kinda be your surrogate family."  
"My....mom...." Tears filled the girls green eyes, making them sparkle.   
"Tonight, you are going to stay with us." Pheobe said.  
A couple hours later, Piper sat with Leo in the livingroom of the manor. "Leo, Im still confused. If shes Prues child, only over...THERE..." Piper sighed. "I dont know how im going to explain this to her. She dont know anything about it. I dont even know enough."  
"Sweetheart, you dont have to explain. Just be her friend. Paige is going to get her a foster family. Seth was right. They are going to build her a new life. Hopefully, they are going to find her a family close to us. Then we can visit her." Leo looked hopefully at Piper. "Please dont obsess over it. That wont help Pacey."  
"But what about her potential.....abilities. Prue, in that life, apparantly got Prues binded abilities. Not to mention the demon aspect. They will come for her, surely you know that Leo. She needs to be prepared."  
"Then there is one other alternative, " Leo said calmly, "we could adopt her."  
Piper looked at Leo wistfully, "If only we could, Leo. But lets face it. Its to dangerous." And turning slowly, head hung glumly, Piper went up the steps to go to bed.  
  
  
-----  
  
The next morning, Piper, Paige, Pheobe, Pacey, and Leo sat silently at the diningroom table. No one ate or spoke as they all looked at each other.  
"Im going to work and see what I can find out. Pacey, I will probably come back in a few hours to get you." Paige said, with a smile, but little emotion. "We are going to fix you up, sweetie."  
Pacey nodded her acceptance of this. She took a bisquit and added some honey to it. Slowly, she took a bite. "Can I go watch TV?" she asked calmly.  
"Of course." Pheobe said.  
The day went by to slowly for Piper. Then, at one o'clock, the phone rang.  
"Hello?"  
"Piper, I found Pacey a home. How does one block from the manor sound?"  
"Really?! Thats great! Who are they?"  
"The Jamesons. You know Keith and Tymra?"  
"Yes, they are terrific people. Oh Paige your wonderful!"  
"I know. Can you drive Pacey over here? They are waiting to meet her."  
That night, Pacey called. "Piper?"  
"Hey!! How are you?"  
"Im great. The Jamesons are so nice! They said I could come see you anytime I wanted!"  
"Thats wonderful honey. And feel free to come over. We feel like your family." With a smile, Piper hung up the phone. Shes going to be fine, she thought to herself as she walked up the stairs, turning off the lights as she went. And when the time comes she needs help, Im glad she knows she can come to us, her aunt......I mean...friends.  
  
  
-------------------------The End---------------- 


End file.
